No Glee from Environmentalists for Coca-Cola "Plant Bottle"

Join us in sending a message to Coca Cola that bottling water in plastic made from 30% "plants" is not green; it's greenwashing. Here's the story...

Some California environmental groups got a last minute invite to an unusual spectacle taking place on Earth Day to launch Coca Cola's new "plant bottle" for Dasani bottled water. The invitation cheers the "exciting packaging advancement" that will allow Coca-Cola to bottle its plain old municipal water without the coke syrup in a bottle that is "made with up to 30 percent plants* -- and up to 30 percent less petroleum."

"The event is a fashion show featuring models clad in garments made from plants that cover up to 30 percent of their bodies. The show will be hosted by actor and singer Matthew Morrison from FOX TV's "Glee."

Sadly, Coca Cola, WE SEND OUR REGRETS. Click the gray Petition Tab at the top to learn why and to add your name to the list.

*(The "plant" portion of Coke's new bottle is ethanol from Brazilian sugarcane.)

2. We Regret that despite your green leaf logo, your "plant bottle" is still just a PET plastic bottle and is not biodegradable or compostable on land or at sea.

3. We Regret that Coca-Cola will not be collecting and recycling their own PET "plant bottles," and that only approximately 20.9% percent of PET bottles are "recycled" (mostly into lower grade material that is not used in bottles again) in America. The remainder, at over 20 billion bottles, last forever in our landfills or in our environment, including our oceans. We also regret that Coca-Cola failed to achieve its own pledge of using at least 10% recycled content in PET bottles and has just announced the shut down of its PET recycling joint venture in South Carolina. http://www.container-recycling.org/%20

4. We Regret that Coca-Cola is substituting its chemical-laden petroleum plastic bottle with a chemical-laden petroleum and plant plastic bottle.

6. We Regret that advertising has tricked people into believing that bottled water is safer when in fact your product has been recalled for contamination and gets a grade of "D" on Environmental Working Group's evaluation of bottled waters. http://www.ewg.org/bottled-water-2011-search?id=36

8. We Regret that single servings of water are sold in disposable packaging that will last longer than any of us will be on this planet, and that future generations will have to deal with our waste. http://www.storyofstuff.org/bottledwater/

9. We Regret that you aren't screening the documentaries Tapped and Bag It! at your event.

10. We Regret that Matthew Morrison, a beloved singer and actor, is involved with such a green washing sham. We wish he had talked with us first.

And although we appreciate the promise of 30% clad models, we believe it would be more appropriate for your models to be nude, as in "the emperor has no clothes," because this kind of green washing doesn't fool us at all.